well it's been a VERY busy weekend, and unfortunately not as successful as I wanted it to be :( But I've taken a few steps forward and also another step or two backward

piss me off. More on that towards the end.
Spent some quality time with the car friday though today. First things to handle was to get the exhaust all clamped down and secured.
Unfortunately, when I tightened down all the clamps to the exhaust, it cause everything to start binding... me = :frustrated: :frustrated: :curses:
So I ended up cutting a bunch of "reliefs" into the piping to take the pressure off the downpipe as well as to keep it from binding over the rear axle. after much :curses: and welding, I was able to get it to fit... also, I ended up "massaging" the tranny tunnel a little bit to make extra room

you can see where I did the massaging by the marker marks in this pic:

after I got the exhaust all positioned where it needed to be, I started to fab up the custom dual 3" tips for the end. The donor car originally came with a set of tips I liked very much, but unfortunately they were way to long to fit the car and looked like utter $hit due to rust and what not

thankfully though, after a little quality time with the wire brush wheel on my drill they shined up REAL nice 8) I was rather impressed by how nicely they cleaned up actually. I'm gonna toss a coat of high temp clearcoat on them to hopefully help maintain the shine. we'll see.
After tossing on the bumper I got to measuring to figure out how long the tips needed to be so that they didn't stick out retardly far from the bumper...
here are the tips after a good deal of cutting, fitting, welding, and filling, etc to get them to look nice and not have any holes around the tips:

here is the whole "tip assembly" that goes from the muffler... turned out pretty good if I do say so myself 8)

and installed on the car:

pic is a lil hazy from all the smoke from finishing weld it to the muffler. unfortunately, it seems it's starting to sag a little bit from the rubber muffler mounts stretching under the weight, so I might have to make some adjustments to the mounts down the road, but for now this will do just fine

Next on the plate was to get the intercooler all plumbed up. Big thanks to Jesper (zepmoreau here on MG) for hooking me up with the 2.5" AL tubing!!! Also to Rich (Bing on TDIF, not sure of his handle here if he's on here) for shipping it out to me for Jesper. Though I didn't think I needed all of it, I came damn close to using all 4 feet of the stuff

Here it is all mocked up:


in order to help the hose make it around the oil pan, I ended up flattening it out a little bit with the trust 'ol hammer

Not much of a dent, but it did the trick to let me tuck it up and be completely covered by the bumper (once I put it back on that is

)
I picked up the couplers from
www.siliconeintakes.com. This guy by far had the best prices that I could find on all fittings, and had a HUGE supply of different reducers, etc etc etc. His shipping was a lil high in my book (charged me $20 to ship the box when in reality it cost him $10

) but had great service. He also hooked me up with a deal, so basically that $20 of shipping was free... so guess I can't complain that much. I actually need to put in one last order for a few more odds and ends (either a 45* hose or a hump hose to make the angle to the throttle body and a 2" to 2.5" 90* elbow to make up from the turbo output to the intercooler).
And here is the setup for the BOV installation:

for fitment reasons I'm putting this thing within 8" of the TB. Supposedly this isn't the most ideal place for a BOV, but I also have a BPV I might be tossing in if the BOV is too loud for my tastes... so I figured I'd design it for the BPV and if I end up keeping the BOV I can cut it out and move it to before the intercooler.
next on the list was to get the fuel lines all run and hooked up. The original fuel line had a straight -6AN fitting on it, so I picked up a 90* one from good 'ol fleebay for a price and tossed it in there. This was the first time I've ever messed with these fittings... and it was a ROYAL PITA to get it to slip in there... but I figured it out after a bit:

So once the fuel was set up, IC was routed... it was time to get the aftermarket oil cooler installed

The Donor car had the oil cooler mounted on the radiator, so I figured I'd do the same since the lines were PLENTY long enough to make it across. I used the clips and holes for the A/C condensor to mount the one side of the oil cooler:

and then fabricated a mount to go to the other side of the radiator and tie it in nice and tight:

After a lil TLC from the grinder and then a quick coat of paint, it was all done and looking real 8)
NExt on the list was to finally secure my positive post as welll as my coil pack. After looking around, I was able to figure out an easy place to put the coil. I didn't really have the patience to build a fancy rack in all honesty, and for just 1 coil... this made sense. I simply drilled a hole into the fire wall, then took an oversized sleeve and put it between the coil and the firewall... ending result:

works perfecly, and the coil wire to the distributor fits JUUUUST right :woowoo:
Once that was done, it was time to tackle the cone filter and get that all tucked in... after some minor cutting to the 3" 45* bend I had left over from the exhaust, I was able to get the Bigmouth cone filter I had laying around from my A4 installed:

because the cone filter sits so close the the exhaust mani, i figured it'd be a good idea to toss in a heat shield. Thanks to work once again, I was able to score a big piece of 16 gauge AL sheet metal... and after some measuring, cutting, and bending (both with the hammer and my knee) I was able to come up with this (miller approved of course :-P):

And installed:

I had a little bit of the rubber gasket that goes on the timing belt cover left over, so I figured I'd dress up the edge a little bit and put that there. Also, this helped save me from cutting myself on the edge... cuz I know I'd be stupid enough to do that one day

Shield is held on by one bolt that was used to hold down the original CIS airbox.
from this point, I then buttoned up the laaast of the coolant stuff... got the afterrun pump plumbed up and mounted


Once that was done, I did something I hadn't done on this car for over 6 months... I closed the hood

!!!! I needed to make sure that my IAT and plug would clear the hood because it looked REALLLLLY tight. Much to my surprised, it cleared just fine... BUT just to be 100% sure it'd never hit incase the motor movement was bigger than the existing gap... I cut a little relief in the frame of the hood...

This brought me up to today... and today was suppose to be THE DAY! I wanted to get the car started... but alas, the stars were not aligned :( :bullshits:
after a little time on the inside to get the center console installed once again and get everything else buttoned up... it was time for the 'ol girl to get rolled out of the garage and into the bright sunny day :-P

The tasks to get accomplished were as followed:
1) fill the car with coolant. one would think this would be a nice and simple task... but alas, my welding job of the coolant pipe to incorporated the afterrun pump wasn't as good as I thought it was :frustrated: Yup, you guessed it... it leaked like a siv! So after a lot of cursing and swearing, and some grinding and welding... and pressure testing this time, I was able to get all the holes patched up.
2) fire up the ECU and get it updated with the appropriate configuration. Simple task again... but alas, not so easy. I turned the key... and nothing. No power to the new fuse panel.... AT all... but I was getting power to the battery post

I pull down the panel and check out my relay... it was getting power

but with the key turned, the trigger wire for the relay wsan't getting power... yet, the 15 block on the ignition switch WAS getting power

again. So after doing a few continuity tests, I noticed the new wire I ran didn't connect... and after poking around I found that SOMEHOW the wire got tangled up in the steering column... and broke in two :bashtard:. Once I found that, I clipped the wire and got it all connected again... and low and behold... it worked!!!
3) Turn the car over w/o the distributor hooked up or the fuel pump relay installed. yet again, simple task (noticing a pattern yet????)... what happened? nothing. click click click... dammit. battery was dead. had 12 volts, but guess the amps were way down. So I hooked up the A4 to the battery in the trunk and ... :woowoo: it turned over!
4) prime the fuel system... this is where the major headaches came, and I still reek of gasoline because of it. I think I wired somehing incorrectly for the fuel pump relay... and I say this because, when I turn the key I get... well, NOTHING! :frustrated: When I took the car off the road, the fuel pump relay worked fine, so it's gotta be the wiring I'm guessing. I figured though, in order to test the system I might as well just hotwire it and see if the pump works. So i jumped the terminals and the bump flys into action... followed by a hissing noise coming from the engine bay... followed by fuel spraying past the injector seats on the fuel rail and alllll down the side of the motor and onto the ground

. SHYYYYAAAT!
So I quickly pull the jumper and look in amazement as to what just happened. I wiggled the rail and twisted the injectors to see if I could get them to seat better. I also removed the tabs that held it to the head... still flowing a lot of fuel out of the seats. SO i figured that the orings were shot and needed to get replaced. I pull off the throttle body and get the fuel rail out, then reconnect everything w/o really touching anything... low and behold... it didn't leak a drop!

Feeling brave, I decide to put the fuel rail BACK into the car, but not bolt the brackets to the head and not install the throttle body... and wouldn't ya know it... not a single drip! I started to attach the brackets, and fuel started to drip past the injectors... dammit! So I leave those be, and then try to install the throttle body again... it was tight against the fuel rail... and unfortunately, it's TOO tight against the fuel rail :( :frustrated: Unfortunately, that little bit of interference (due to the thicker silicone coupler I'm using instead of the MM hose) is enough to upset the seats on the fuel rail... which leaves me as I am right now.
I have accepted the fact that I"m going to have to pull the IM and put a spacer inbetween the head and the IM to make enough room for the stupid fuel rail to clear that damn teardropped throttle body (damn you MC1/2 throttle bodies!!!!). Not exactly sure where to get those, so I'm in the process of shopping around. I'm a little bit annoyed to say the least, but do realize that this is part and parcel of the course unfortunately. Hopefully I'll be able to source the spacer I need this week and get the remainder of the parts and get this thing on the road in the next two weeks, but we'll see. If any of ya can provide a good place (will be sending 034 a message as well) as to where to find one of these spacers, that would be awesome. I'm blanking on the name right now, but it begins with a "P" I know that much :-P
On a brighter note though, I was at least able to clean my garage... this is what happens when you have a car sit in there for 6+ months w/o ever coming out:

spent a lil time in there reorganizing stuff so I can walk around w/o tripping and swept up the floors before PUSHING the damn car back into the garage...
so that's where she sits right now. Garage unfortunately is REEKING of gasoline from all the stuff I spilled on the motor. I will be sure to hose down the motor with a lil bit of water before starting it officially so I don't have any fires in the engine bay... that owuld be the LAST damn thing I need at this point

well hope ya enjoyed the show as always... more to come! the light at the end of the tunnel is. almost. there.